You seem to be lostThe page you're looking for can't be found. This may be due to an outdated link or a mistyped URL. Please check the URL again, or try a search below:Can a WordPress theme be used as your brand? I received an interesting question recently. I’m using the 2010 theme. I have not found any other that I like better. Now, I’m advised that I should have the same theme running through ALL of my social media. Is it possible to use the 2010 theme for my LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc.? The short answer is, “No.” (In some forums, other people might embellish it with more colorful phrases.) I could leave it at that, walk away and be totally justified. But I think exploring what could be the motivation behind the question adds value. Theme, n., a unifying or dominant idea, motif, etc., as in a work of art. Let’s contrast that by borrowing a few phrases from WordPress’ use of the word Theme: Fundamentally, the WordPress Theme system is a way to “skin” your weblog.
Yet, it is more than just a “skin.” WordPress Themes… provide much more control over the look and presentation of the material on your website. A Theme modifies the way the site is displayed, without modifying the underlying software. Your social media presence, much like your presence in the greater marketing world, should have a common theme (the dictionary version) running through them. Some might call it a brand. This could include a logo, colors, typeface, tagline, or more. Some social media services allow you to make some customizations (Twitter and Facebook both let you do this to an extent). Can a WordPress theme become your brand? If a theme inspires or guides you, I think that’s great. You might borrow some colors from it, or take a hint in typography selection. However, unless your theme was created specifically for you, it probably won’t work very well as a brand, especially if it is a popular one from the theme repository or one of the major theme companies.
In this case, the Twenty Ten theme is hardly distinctive. It is used on thousands of websites around the globe. Aside from the header image (which many people will change), there is little that would make it stand out. The colors are simply black and white, the fonts are nearly ubiquitous, and, at least out of the box, there is no logo that says “This is my website!” If your website or blog is new, don’t waste time agonizing over your theme or your brand. Just make sure your theme is clean and the text is readable. If you want to build your site, concentrate on adding content. Search engines don’t care whether your words are set in Times New Roman, Arial, or Calibri. More importantly, people can’t read the words that aren’t there. I received a question today via email from someone I met at WordCamp Detroit 2011. First, go to these things. The next WordCamp Detroit is October 6, 2012. They are great educational events. And if you know a few things and are pleasant to people, they will remember (and recommend!) you.
Second, the question reminded me just how much ignorance and confusion still exists about WordPress. when it comes to hosting my site (or blog). — ($13 a year with my domain already purchased elsewhere). Is there any truth to this? Well, yes, there is some truth to this, but the question is also like comparing apples and paring knives (yes, lunch is overdue as I write this): You need both to serve a delicious snack, but they are very different things. First, let’s make a distinction between WordPress and hosting. WordPress is free (the meaning of free could fill another blog post) publishing software. It runs on a web server and manages and publishes website and blog information. Hosting is a service where a computer with special software is connected to the internet to share web pages, manage email accounts, store files, etc. WordPress, which is free software, runs on a server, which costs money. Server hardware, configuration, internet connections, etc. get very technical very quickly, and is best left to professionals.
Enter companies like Bluehost, HostGator, and hundreds of others. They sell something call shared hosting, where they lease space (hard drive storage, RAM, and processor time) on their computers to various people in such a way that one computer may have dozens (or hundreds) of websites. ) software on a shared hosting account. is a free (no cost, with upsells available, which is where the $13/year figure comes in) hosting service that runs a highly-tweaked version of the same free (no cost) WordPress software available for download from the dot-org site. is a great place to begin. It’s like your first apartment after college. Eventually you will outgrow it, and you will want a house. When that happens, ask me about my hosting and webmaster service. The American Internet Should Remain Free Do you think the internet is important? It has given me much over the last several years. I have made new friends, educated myself, found fun things to do and share, and been amazed at just how crazy/sad/caring our society can be.
My future career and the very livelihood of millions of people depends on the infrastructure, technology, and freedom of the internet. I don’t generally jump on bandwagons and I’m rarely vocal about causes. For this I will make an exception. There are some crazy ideas being tossed about in Congress and the Senate right now. These have a huge potential to be poorly interpreted, cripple freedom of speech on the internet, and set our society back in time. While I understand the desire for large corporations to “protect” their “intellectual property,” I value individual freedom more. What can you do? First, watch this video. PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo. Next, take a few minutes to contact your legislators and express your view about the laws being considered. Let’s keep the internet free. My friend was frustrated on the other end of the phone. “) blog can be a website,” she said. I briefly explained the difference between posts and pages, and the way different themes worked to display information.
Throughout my monologue she mumbled sounds of a vague and unconvincing understanding. My brilliance wasn’t cutting through her fog. “It actually really easy to do. You just don’t know the mechanics of the process,” I concluded. “You hit it on the head!” she said. “I don’t get what steps to take.” Something clicked for me in that conversation. My friend helped me understand that many people need practical, concrete examples before they can grasp the systems and information flow that many WordPress developers take for granted. I look forward to playing with new approaches to teaching people learning and teaching styles. How to Paste from Microsoft Word During the “21 Tips From the Organizers” segment at WordCamp Detroit, my buddy Anthony talked about pasting from MS Word the “right way.” Someone I met at the conference asked if I knew how to do this. When you copy text from Microsoft Word (or a webpage), the clipboard also grabs hidden formatting instructions.
This allows you to bring the formatting along with the text when you paste it. Sometimes (but not always*) these invisible instructions confuse WordPress’ TinyMCE editor and your post “looks funny.” Yes, that’s the technical term. When it happens, you the HTML view will show extra markup. If you know HTML it’s frustrating and you can clean it up. If you don’t, it’s just frustrating. So, how do you prevent this problem?Use the “Paste from Word” tool (easier) Copy the text from MS Word. If your toolbar appears as one row, you need to click the circled icon to expand the “kitchen sink.” Click the “Paste from Word” icon in the second row. A box will pop up. Click in the box and paste your text there. Open a basic text editor like Notepad. Past the text into a blank text editor. Press Ctrl-A to select all the text in the editor. Copy the text again. Paste the text into the TinyMCE editor window on your WordPress site.